Moon Hyun-jin, left, chairman of the Global Peace Foundation, speaks during a plenary session of the Global Peace Convention at the Marriott Hotel in Manila, Tuesday. Other dignitaries are South Korean lawmaker Kim Jin-pyo, second from left, Madhav Das Nalapat, UNESCO Peace Chair at Manipal University in India, third from left, and Edwin Feulner, the founder of the Heritage Foundation. / Courtesy of Global Peace Foundation

By Kim Hyo-jin

MANILA ― Civic activists and scholars have gathered in Manila to discuss how to spur unification of the two Koreas.

During the five-day convention, hosted by the U.S.-based civic group Global Peace Foundation (GPF), about 1,400 participants formed a consensus that civic society should take the lead for unification.

They agreed it is particularly important when the political arena does not function enough to settle conflicts between interest-seeking countries while North Korea is posing a nuclear threat.

"Maintaining the status quo is not an option. A new approach is needed that moves beyond the outdated Cold War framework and engages the Korean people and their neighbors in shaping their own destiny," GPF Chairman Moon Hyun-jin said during an opening speech, Monday.

Moon, an NGO leader who has spent a decade in the unification campaign, underlined the need to find shared values or moral justification among global citizens for such a goal.

He presented the ancient Korean mantra "hongik ingan" that is devoted to the welfare of mankind, as a vision for civic society in working toward unification, drawing much support from the participants.

"Any global perspective or approach based solely on political or economic considerations is inherently limited and insufficient," Moon said. "What is required is a simple, clear vision that encapsulates the essence of our common humanity."

Showing support for Moon's claim, Heritage Foundation founder Edwin Feulner encouraged civic activists to reaffirm their commitment to the goal of unification.

"When we can see opportunities for one step, there are things we share together. These are the kind of things that can slowly bring us along on the road toward eventual reunification," Feulner said. "I recommend all of you realize this important work and pay constant and repeated attention."

A forum to discuss the role of stakeholders of the Korean Peninsula was also held as a sideline among scholars from South Korea, U.S., China, Japan, Russia, and Mongolia, Wednesday.

They urged practical action from their governments in one voice, with some directing their criticism toward the inaction of China, the biggest ally to North Korea.

Joseph Bosco, senior researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), called on Washington to pressure Beijing to engage in resolving North Korea's nuclear threats.

"It should lead imposing secondary sanctions on Chinese commercial and governmental entities that assist the North's nuclear and missile programs," he said.

Suggesting the strategic communications program should be directed at China itself, he claimed, "That way, the self-respecting Chinese population will know their leaders are keeping in power the most dangerous regime in the world."

Noting this year is the critical transitional period for the Korean Peninsula, Feulner, a top advisor to the U.S. Trump administration, assured a strong Korea-U.S. alliance will remain despite growing geopolitical uncertainties.

"The fact that Secretary of Defense Mattis, the first person confirmed by the United of States Senate as a member of Trump's Cabinet, made his first trip to Asia and made the first stop to Seoul, Korea, that I think points out everyone in the new administration continues to bear in terms of the bilateral relationship and in terms of the whole evolving structure of relationship in East Asia," he said in the following session.